Baker Tilly South East Europe recently hosted the Baker Tilly 2025 Europe Conference in Athens during which the exciting news of a merger between MHA and Baker Tilly South East Europe was announced.
Commenting on the development, Francesca Lagerberg, CEO of Baker Tilly International, told CBN, “This merger is a powerful example of how collaboration within our network can unlock new opportunities for member firms, their people and their clients. MHA and Baker Tilly South East Europe (BTSEE) already share a close working relationship, and this step deepens their strategic alignment. It’s a move that enhances their combined capabilities while reinforcing the strength and cohesion of the Baker Tilly network.”
Prior to the announcement, Lagerberg also spoke to CBN in a joint interview with the CEO of Baker Tilly South East Europe Marios A. Klitou, and Regional and Managing Partner for Baker Tilly South East Europe Savvas M. Klitou. Pictured above, from left to right, are Savvas. M. Klitou, Francesca Lagerberg and Marios A. Klitou.
Among other things, the three executives explained their roles at Baker Tilly and shared their view of the evolving professional services sector. They also talked about Cyprus and Greece’s roles within the network and the potential impact of global developments on the local industry.
Can you each tell me a bit more about your positions and roles at Baker Tilly. What do you each consider to be some of your most important duties within each of your distinctive roles?
Francesca Lagerberg: I'm the Global CEO of Baker Tilly International. We're a network of firms. We're in 140 plus different territories around the world and my job is to help coordinate the network to make sure that things work well between each of our independent firms. So, my job is really to make sure that it's going smoothly, that we're bringing in great firms, we're keeping great firms and that our firms are well connected. We're headquartered in London, but our job takes us all around the world because it's important that we do have that connectivity. So, I spend most of my time with lovely people like these (referring to Marios A. Klitou and Savvas M. Klitou) who are running the firms and doing the things that make us such a special organisation. And we're a 5.6 billion U.S. dollar global network at the moment, but we're also growing in double digits and we've had a great year just gone, but we're about to have an even better year just coming. We are easily a top ten global accounting firm.
Marios A. Klitou: I am the CEO of Baker Tilly South East Europe which includes a cluster of countries, members of Baker Tilly international, which are Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Cyprus. We have been members of Baker Tilly for the last 22 years and my role is mainly to coordinate operations with the five countries.
Savvas M. Klitou: I'm Regional and Managing Partner for Baker Tilly South East Europe. Effectively I have been involved in the role of Managing Partner for the last two years and my role is basically dealing with all the problems. But also, joking aside, driving growth. We have a young partnership, so high aspirations and an important part of this is maintaining operations but also driving the growth and trying to get us where we all want to get to.
There seems to be a lovely team spirit between the three of you that you don't see very often in the corporate world. Does this thread continue throughout Baker Tilly?
FL: One of the magical pieces about Baker Tilly is that you meet people and you go ‘They're all people I would like to have dinner with, people that I would like to spend time with,’ and you see that right around the network. I think there's something very special about a network where people genuinely trust each other and want to do things together.
The many professionals attending the conference here in Athens and similar conferences all around the world reflect the magnitude of Baker Tilly. How large is the network at the moment and how do recent developments, perhaps including the UK firm completing its IPO and the US firm joining forces with Moss Adams, reflect ongoing growth?
FL: I think from a network perspective, we're very ambitious. We have had double digit growth and we've had a fantastic last five years of consistent and good growth. But that isn't where we want to finish. And it's not just about size, it's about quality. We're looking to grow a network that's able to deliver for our clients. We are able to operate with a client base that we are particularly strong in, which is really good, high growth organisations that are ambitious as well. And, we also want to have a great experience for our people. We want to be an attractive place for talent to join us and for people to want to stay and develop their careers at. We see the future as being something where we remain a very, very high-ranking top ten global accounting firm where we have opportunity for people and are able to give clients that experience. So, they have a great experience with a firm like Greece or Cyprus, but they have an equally good experience with every firm in our network. We've got something that means that we don't just talk about being globally united, we really are. We're connected, we enjoy working with clients who've got international aspirations. Also with clients who've got great domestic practices, and offering that kind of environment where you get that consistency of good quality, people who really care and an environment where not only are we looking to grow, but we want our clients to be growing as well, and to help them with that mission.
MK: I would like to talk about what's happening around us, and without any doubt, things are changing and they will be changing at a faster pace in the months and years to come. The challenges are there. You see merges with the international networks and mergers between firms within networks, private investors acquiring large firms have been investing billions of dollars, euros in these entities. It makes you think ‘what's next?’, and for me, one of the things I always keep in mind is not how fast we are running, it's how fast the competition is running and that we have to keep ahead.
So, we have to take into consideration what's happening around us and make the correct decision because, as a firm, as a network, we have to stay ahead of the rest. For me that's the most important thing.
LF: I think the pace of change at the moment is something we've never seen before. Individual things have happened before, but not at this pace. You pick up the newspaper every day and there's something new being announced, which is an exciting time for professional services firms. But, it also means that you've got to really be thinking ahead, being strategic about what we want to do, not getting caught up in a rush but also making sure that you're not being left behind. Actually, I'm not sure there's ever been a more exciting time for professional services firms because there's an explosion of interest. Private Equity (PE) doesn't get involved in businesses if it doesn't think you're going to do well, so you can understand why that investment is coming in. We're no longer a capital-light industry. You need funding for technology, you need funding to attract great people. You need funding for your inorganic growth as well as your organic growth. You’re seeing an explosion in our market and that's also reflected by the fact that we've got clients who are really looking to do things as well. So, it's not a bad time to be in the accounting profession.
MK: What are your thoughts on why this is happening now?
FL: I don’t know why this is happening all of a sudden but I think there's something about the need to have that capital investment. It's become more obvious that without that capital investment, you can't go from here to here, to here and the opportunities are over here. In the old days, you could just get by with great people, couldn't you? You could attract great people, keep great people, but now you need great tech. You need great innovation. You need a certain size and scale to be attractive. And that's all happened within a really short period of time. So, you can't rely on your partners to just put that money in. You can't rely on your growth to give you that investment and I think a lot of individuals have looked at it and thought ‘we need capital investment’ and then people have looked into it, and thought ‘what a great opportunity.’ And I just think it's been a wonderful marriage of timing and the need to grow. Do you feel the same?
MK: In the profession we were possibly running, I don’t want to say the wrong model, but a model that had difficulties. With partners leaving, goodwill payments and all these sorts of things, which was a hindrance in the development of the network. So it's an excellent marriage. I think the PEs and the outside investors have seen this need, and they say, ‘OK, let's put some money here, help these guys to relinquish the burdens they have, give them money to invest and everybody will benefit.’ And I think that's what's happened.
FL: And isn't that fascinating that has happened, and it's a very accelerated time frame? We have gone from people talking about it to suddenly everybody is looking at the opportunities. Well, obviously, you're running a fantastic business. It's really successful. If I was going to look to get a return on my investment, I'd want to talk to people like you. And I think that's where the profession is at the moment. You never can be 100% sure of your return on investment. But professional services are a good bet. In difficult volatile times, you go to places that are going to help deal with difficult times, because navigating global politics at the moment is intriguing. There is also enormous economic change, political change, social change. You're going to go with professions that are good at dealing with those. And the accounting profession traditionally has been extremely good at managing those times and giving people comfort about the choices. You haven't always got the answers, but you know that these are the logical choices that you've got. You've got trusted advisors.
How important to the network does Baker Tilly International consider Cyprus, Greece and the other countries that make up the South Eastern European network?
FL: We have done the European regional Conference here (in Athens) because this is a really important part of our business, five great firms. Also, if you look at Europe as a whole, we have, almost a region within the region, a very strong grouping of firms. This particular grouping has been successful over a long period of time. They're ambitious. They've got a really good strategy. And that matters because you need to have strong firms in your core operational areas and you've got great financial services expertise. You've got a great understanding of the market. You've got good clients coming in. And we take a view that, in terms of role modelling, in terms of firms that are really doing things, you want to have firms that are ambitious and really entrepreneurial with themselves and with the people they work with. So for us, it really does matter. We see Europe as being an amazing growth area despite difficult times over the last few years. Europe is still growing really well. It's a really important part of our network. It's a good balance to other parts of the world. You get lots of stories about North America, lots of stories about Asia, but Europe is still massively important to our success as a network and this is a really important region.
MK: We have a leading role in the area and we've been around for a long time. We have good relationships within the region as well as Eurasia and the Southeast region from Cyprus, Israel and Turkey, Greece up to Kazakhstan. I'm happy and proud that there is an excellent relationship within the region and this is very, very important because it encourages cooperation, exchange of ideas, views, knowledge and expertise.
LF: Everybody knows Marios and Savvas. That relationship within our network is extremely important. That trust, that connectivity, the fact that people will want to have a chat with them and find out what they're doing, to understand how that works. But I also like that concept of the bridge between the Western part of Europe and moving towards the beginning of APAC, this region is really central to the success of that connectivity.
SK: It’s important that it also reflects on the quality of service we're able to provide our clients, being close and having this close relationship. And this, I think, has come about over the years with the growth of the network. That you do have trusted partners in another country. You know they will respond fast. They'll understand the needs and that just ends up as a better quality of service to the client. We get very responsive. We can get a large number of country tenders out a lot faster than any one of our competitors and that's because of the relationships, because we know each other.
MK: And one of the things I have to praise the global office for is the fact that in the crisis of Russia etc., when Eurasia used to be separate from the South East and it was decided in the period of crisis to bring everybody together. And it was a very wise decision and helped us to create coherence within the region and better understanding. It is big enough. And it's not too big.
Can you tell me more about Baker Tilly’s approach to consolidation? It seems to be a growing trend within the global professional services sector.
FL: We're absolutely looking at it, where it makes sense. We have independent firms, so it's down to the firms to make a decision if that's the right course for them. There’s been a lot of press commentary about the death of globalisation and how we're all going to live in our own little caves and put up barriers. But actually, that's not what we’re really seeing because what a client wants is for you to help them cross borders. They want you to help them make their life less painful, to give them seamless delivery where it's possible. And from a people perspective, people want to have that interaction and they want to work with other places. So rather than putting up barriers and becoming more protectionist, you're actually seeing firms going ‘Well, you know, we work a lot with each other. How can we make those ties stronger?’ And that doesn't always mean that you have to do some legal structure. It can just be about how you operate. We think one of the strengths of our network is that's how we work. We trust each other and we do things together. But I think you will see, we are already seeing in our profession, firms making that a little bit more formal. And where that makes sense there's huge synergies to come from that. But I think what you're beginning to see is there's a certain size and scale that you need to be to be able to serve a certain kind of client. And if that means that you can offer a better service offering, that's fantastic. And from a people perspective to be able to open more doors for them, if you were going to join an organisation, you're going to want to join an organisation that's going somewhere and has opportunities for you. So, I think it has a lovely client-people element to it.
SK: I agree with you. As a region, and the five countries having our little cluster in our part of the world, we've seen a lot of the benefits of being able to work across borders. Being able to utilise resources and cross-border deals, being able to service clients with one point of contact, being able to meet their needs wherever they might be. With the clients we've been servicing for a number of years, rather than being based with a lot of operations in the southeast of Europe, this is something that has differentiated us from the competition over the years. And I think the general meaning of consolidation is towards that notion that clients will be able to receive better service. And it's being part of a bigger family, not needing to reinvent the wheel every single time yourself. Someone you know in the bigger, collective group can make bigger decisions, allocate the right resources in the right way to invest in the right either people or in technology that will fuel growth and keep up momentum.
FL: At the end of the day you don't need everyone to invent fire, which is a really powerful metaphor. You can learn from each other and that size and scale can give you that. But I think what you're going to see right across our profession is more and more of this (consolidation) coming together for a better service for clients.
MK: I agree. Small countries may not have the resources in order to create the necessary controls in order to the standard expected from the profession and the network today. When these things are centralised, you can afford to invest in getting better quality people and very effectively be able to provide better service to our clients and comply with the global office’s requirements etc.
FL: I think there's something really powerful about the fact that as you grow and grow, you professionalise everything that you do. And its part of that natural evolution. But you absolutely don't have to do everything 140 times. You can do it in a way that enables you to learn and grow with each other.
This question is more for Ms. Lagerberg. You're an advocate for adversity of thinking when it comes to placing people in top positions. Can you tell me more about your approach?
FL: Diversity of thinking is such a powerful way of looking at the world, because it's not about putting one thing over. It's about having a broad range and just from a common sense point of view, the more voices you have in the room, the chances are you're going to get a good, constructive challenge to what you're trying to do. But also in terms of the reality of life, for all sorts of reasons, you often can become a little bit centralised, a little bit narrow thinking, and then suddenly you get an opportunity to think a little bit more broadly. So, I think from a commercial perspective, diverse boards, diverse leadership structures tend to always outperform the market or consistently outperform the market. So, it's good commerce. Also just from a common sense point of view, why wouldn't you want to give everyone the chance to be the best that they could be? I'm quite a diverse person within the accounting profession, because I'm a woman and I've got to a position that is unusual for a woman to have got to. But, that's not going to be the future. This would be a very average kind of person in future because lots of people will do that. I think it's reflective of the fact that the world is changing. It's giving people those opportunities to do the things that they perhaps may not always have the opportunity to do. So I think that's always important, but perhaps for our network, the most important thing, in my view, is that what we want to do is to give people the chance to reach their full potential, whatever that might look like. Not everybody wants to rise up the ranks, because that's not the future they're looking for, but they could still be a fantastic contributor to our firms and in our network. So we want to give people those opportunities, but also we want to make sure that we're not just doing what we've always done and expecting different results, because that way lies madness.
I think that it's rather sad at the moment that diversity is getting a bad name and I think that's a reaction to some initiatives and some things that have happened over the years. But at the core of it, it's about giving people equal opportunity and I can't see anybody finding that to be a negative thing.
Also, in Baker Tilly we like to hope that we're attracting talent from all over the place, whatever that might look like, that we're bringing in people who have got a different way of thinking, who have got an ability to bring new thoughts in. And if you look at our client base, you've got to have people who can resonate with the different clients we have, the different kinds of work that we're doing. We want clients to see people in our organisation that they resonate with, and the world is becoming wonderfully broader and you need to make sure that you're riding the tide of that. So it's really about giving people the chance to do the things that they're capable of doing and giving them the choices to do that.
Is there anything you'd like to add on that point?
SK: We have four partners who are Baker Tilly born and bred so they can preach their story, that there's a path to partnership if you take the right steps. We have people, our partners, who can teach their story and help people who want to become partners achieve their full potential. Everyone has their own aspirations in life but we can offer partnership to our people and what we say to all our people is ‘The sky’s the limit. It's up to you and we, as an employer, are here to provide opportunities for you to reach your full potential.’
Baker Tilly offers a wide range of services to a lot of different clients all over the world. Are there currently certain aspects that your clients are focusing on, that they're asking advice for more specifically right now?
SK: For our part of the world, and I think across the whole globe, there is a move towards ESG along with more reporting as regards how businesses are run in a more environmentally-friendly way and how governance is working in firms. So, a lot more regulation is perhaps making the lives of businesses a lot more complicated and meeting regulation standards is becoming a lot harder. We're seeing the same with threats towards many businesses and a lot of our clients as regards to cybersecurity threats, so investing in digital infrastructure is very important. And the other thing that we're seeing is that there is a move to data-driven decisions and businesses making decisions based on data. So a lot of the advisory work we provide our clients, other than the bread and butter, which is accounting, auditing and taxes, is this regulatory area and also external risks which a lot of our clients are having to face for the first time. Adding to that I think, also as my background is tax it would be unfair not to mention it, we're moving into a more transparent world as regards how large groups and large structures deal with their tax situations. It's not making it easy for large corporations and we see a lot of initiatives like Pillar 2 and all these things as new opportunities for us. When our clients come to us for advice and guidance, we need to be able to assist them and guide them through. And that's critical for us. So for us it's been a big investment in new service lines and bringing in the right calibre of people who can speak the right language. So for me personally, in any client meeting, I may not ever be able to sell anything around cyber security or digital ESG but we know we have the right people within our organisation who can service these clients.
FL: I think the pattern globally is quite similar. You've got a huge interest in digital- whatever that might involve- different elements from the auditing side of digital through to the advisory side of digital. ESG is a really important part of that. It's sort of been intriguing to see how Europe's moving on the ESG side, the Omnibus programme, how that's moving, but there's still a lot of interest and people are looking at what they can do to be more sustainable, whatever that might mean for them individually.
But one of the biggest things is you've got this massive political shift. A lot of governments have changed from being very right to very left, very left to very right and when any new government comes in, the first thing they do is change the rules. So how do you help people through that? There's a lot of compliance involved in that, but rule changes are quite dramatic in a lot of countries. So, from a network perspective, you're seeing a lot of businesses are just going, ‘what do I do now? I've got to meet new requirements. I've got to make some changes. And then what's going to happen next?’ And so you've got strong compliance changes, but then you've also got stronger advisory changes. So, you've got quite a lot of clients who have been holding off doing things because they're wondering ‘Where is the world going to go? But you can't do that forever. So what are the choices I make? Where might the world be going? How do I take it forward?’
So that's where the accounting profession is extremely strong because it's very good at assessing volatile markets. ‘What are your choices? What are the options? What's the return likely to look like for these?’ So you are seeing that right around the world because not only did half the world's population plus, go to the elections last year, you've got massive political shifts taking place. And that always means change.
It's a world where they're looking for great advice that's thoughtful and some help towards the future and that's I think what we're getting from every single one of our firms- how do you help the client navigate that piece?
And sometimes there isn't an answer, and that's just life. But what is the sensible route to consider? If anyone knew exactly what was going to happen over the next two years, they'd be very wealthy. But you're looking to make a sensible decision based on good facts, good data. I think that data-driven piece is hugely important because the world now is looking for data that really gives you clarity. There's a lot of noise out there, so what are the facts that could be helpful and that you really can trust?
Is there anything else you would like to say about core trends within the industry?
FL: AI must be mentioned. It's game changing for everybody. It's saving all of us hours a week, but where will that go next? And I think everybody is looking at the opportunities but also about how you keep pace with a whole new way of working? What’s next? And that's going to be really important for our clients, but also really important for us in our profession.
Moving on to Cyprus more specifically. How have events like ongoing geopolitical happenings and the US tariffs impacted the country?
MK: The industry in Cyprus has been affected by two things. Number one the Russian connection and the effective complete elimination of the last 10 years which essentially was a game changing for a lot of firms. A lot of firms relied on the Russian market and now, effectively a huge part of their work is lost. There is pressure on a lot of firms in this respect. They had to readjust.
The second thing is international developments will certainly affect the local market, because international networks have been in Cyprus for a long, long time. One of the networks has been in Cyprus since back in 1938. So Cyprus is part of the international structure. The changes that will take place on the international networks certainly will affect Cyprus. At the same time, the increased requirements of the regulators is exercising severe pressure on some of the small firms. As we discussed earlier, you need size in order to be able to comply with the regulators. And all these factors together with the technology changes will change the profession in Cyprus. The profession in the next 10 years will be completely different to the profession of the last 10, 20 years and I think it's for the benefit of everybody. I think the younger generation is better-equipped than us. They know better than us. The profession in Cyprus has a good future, without any question.
When it comes to Greece, we have seen significant changes over the last few years and the profession has improved significantly and this is reflected in the confidence of the international investors and the new companies coming in to invest in Greece. Greece is a larger economy, and is the ‘senior country’ in the area. A lot of the key investments in Romania, in Bulgaria, in Cyprus, all these things will eventually affect the region. It is not only Baker Tilly that has a cluster in the South East. Other firms are trying to do this now as well, following our example because they can see that this is the model that will be most efficient in the years to come under the new requirements.
Returning to the Conference. What are some of the most significant things that will be touched upon here and what messages would you like to be passed on through this event?
FL: We're really excited because we have delegates from all over Europe coming along to spend the next couple of days here in Athens. I think what we're really looking to do is to look at our core drivers so we’ve got a very strong global growth agenda and we're looking in detail about how that will play out in Europe. We've got a lot of our CEOs talking about what they're doing and how they're growing and their ambition and our global ambition, we've got a very clear plan of what we're looking to do by 2026. And then we're looking ahead to our next strategy and we're getting a lot of input for that. We've also got a very strong people agenda, people talking about how we attract talent, keep talent, grow talent, so a lot around that piece. About ambition and the fact that we’re continuing to grow, so growth is a huge part of that. And what that's not just any old growth that's about sustainable, profitable growth and what that looks like.
And then also, and it's not to be underestimated, this is a real opportunity for people to network because one of the great joys which we talk about right at the beginning is being face to face. So there are more side meetings going on and you could shake a stick at. Lots of people having a chance to meet, talk and spend time together in a conducive environment and have conversations, the joy of coming together in a single space. Because you will find the spark is there, the energy is there. So we're hoping by the end of this week, a lot of those connections that are already there get expanded, but also people, who perhaps are newer to the network or haven't had the chance to spend as much time together, will get the chance to do that as well. So that’s a really important part of the next couple of days.
